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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26449075">take root</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/elisela/pseuds/elisela'>elisela</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>9-1-1 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Eddie Diaz Is A Good Father, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Soft Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:14:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,166</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26449075</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/elisela/pseuds/elisela</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie hadn’t been exaggerating when he told Chris that he had a brown thumb. He’s not sure what it is—maybe the same lack of intuition that keeps him away from the kitchen most nights—but when he’d failed to even keep a succulent that Sophia had given him alive back in El Paso, he’d given it up. Plants are fine, and he can enjoy them in nature, but he doesn’t really feel the need to have them around the house, anyway.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>188</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>take root</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracieli/gifts">gracieli</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For my sweet Alicia on her birthday ♥️🌻</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Dad!” Chris rushes towards him, phone clutched in one hand, beaming. “My zucchini sprouted!”</p><p>Eddie holds his hand out for the phone—Chris had been checking his classroom website obsessively as soon as summer break started, waiting for his teacher to post an update about the vegetables they planted on the last day of school. “Looks pretty good, buddy,” he says, looking at the two tiny leaves sticking up through dark soil, Christopher’s name written in his best handwriting on a marker in front. “Did you sign up for a time to go work in the garden yet?”</p><p>“Yeah, two times,” Chris says. “We can go on Wednesday and Buck said he’d take me, too, on Friday.”</p><p>Of course he did.</p><p>“I already sent you the invite,” Chris adds, pushing his glasses up and reaching a hand out for his phone back. “You need to accept it, Dad.”</p><p>It’s not that Eddie regrets getting him the phone, but he does wish the constant bombardment of calendar invites, download requests, game requests, and text messages with nothing but memes would … slow down a bit. “I’m not even sure where my phone is,” he says, “but I will. Promise. You should send that picture to abuela, she’d love to see it.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Eddie hadn’t been exaggerating when he told Chris that he had a black thumb. He’s not sure what it is—maybe the same lack of intuition that keeps him away from the kitchen most nights—but when he’d failed to even keep a succulent that Sophia had given him alive back in El Paso, he’d given it up. Plants are fine, and he can enjoy them in nature, but he doesn’t really feel the need to have them around the house, anyway.</p><p>Chris is different. Fourth grade science and a unit on plant life cycles had him begging for flowers to be brought into the house, and with huge bouquets regularly sold at the farmer’s market for $10, Eddie had no problem taking him every week to pick a bunch out. Sometimes Chris would save his allowance and buy a smaller bouquet for his room, or a vase or two at a yard sale. Then it was a ficus that was half-dead at the nursery and tended carefully by his son until it was thriving again, a monstera deliciosa that Buck brought over and was moved around no less than twenty-six times before Chris found the perfect place for it, and four planters full of sunflowers that Chris planted along the side of the house.</p><p>But his obsession with growing vegetables really starts after they plant the zucchini at school. Eddie and Buck take turns bringing him twice a week to meet his science teacher so he can help tend to the garden, and every time Chris looks wistfully out into their small, brown backyard, Eddie’s heart sinks. They don’t have the space for a real garden—Chris had never been a kid to run around in the backyard, preferring playgrounds and parks, so he hadn’t cared too much when he’d rented the place—let alone the knowledge on how to set it up. The school’s gardens are nice; he can see irrigation lines, beautiful cedar planters, and he’s pretty sure it would cost quite a bit to set something like that up. </p><p>It’s not until they respond to a call at a community garden that he realizes how he can get Chris the garden he so desperately wants.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It takes seven months for space to become available, and part of him had worried about Chris losing interest in that time, but they now have four additional plants in the house along with a windowsill herb garden filled with rosemary, mint, basil, and chives that Chris and Buck regularly use while they cook. The garden manager gives him a call on Tuesday and Eddie fills out the rental agreement while he’s on shift, renting out two adjacent plots, and buys a gardening book that becomes remarkably difficult to read without his boys catching him. He doesn’t just want to drag them out to an empty plot—it just doesn’t feel right—but he’s also … really not sure what to do. So he sucks it up and wanders around the garden, asking for advice, before finally planting a peach tree in Chris’ plot (his favorite fruit) and California poppies in Buck’s (despite Buck claiming that sunflowers are his favorite flower, Eddie’s been dragged out to the poppy fields more times than he can count).</p><p>He picks up the gardening tools that everyone told him he would need, puts them in the community garden branded tote bag that the manager had given him on his first trip out, and takes his boys out to breakfast.</p><p>“Let’s go on a walk,” Eddie says, and Buck groans.</p><p>“I would have eaten less if I had known you were going to torture us,” Buck says, but he’s smiling. </p><p>“Liar,” Eddie says, reaching for his hand. “Come on, I want to show you guys something.” </p><p>They listen to Chris chatter as they walk, and Eddie brings them to a stop along the wrought iron gates with a giant metal sun. “In here,” he says, and feels a sense of pride bloom in his chest as Buck and Chris read the sign and then glance at each other, clearly excited. Their plots are in the back of the expanded section, set up against the corner. One of the other gardeners had offered to make signs for their planter boxes, and he watches the pleased smile on Buck’s face as he runs his fingers over the small wooden board that says <em>Diaz Family</em>. </p><p>“It’s <em>ours</em>?” Chris asks incredulously, gazing around at the space. “We can plant whatever we want?” </p><p>“It’s yours,” Eddie says. “One for you, one for Buck. We can head over to the nursery for all your seeds after this.”</p><p>“Once again, you just reap the benefits,” Buck teases, throwing an arm over Eddie’s shoulders and leaning in to kiss his cheek. “This is awesome, Eddie.”</p><p>He shows them where he’d planted the peach tree, and Buck’s poppies, and sits on the side of the planter box, face tilted up to the sun as they discuss their plans, Chris tapping away at his phone as he writes everything down. </p><p>“This is the best, Dad,” Chris says when they’re leaving, red-cheeked from the sun and grinning. “I’m gonna grow so many vegetables, we’ll never have to buy them from the store again. I’ll teach you how to grow it all, too.”</p><p>Eventually, they get into the habit of spending a few days a week at the garden, tending to their own patches and talking to the other gardeners, experimenting with different things to grow, celebrating their victories with new recipes and old favorites at home, bunches of carefully cut flowers adorning the dining room table. </p><p>When he and Buck finally decide to buy a house, the backyard is the first thing he looks at. </p>
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